Here is a interesting email I received. This is the first part
>>The following market summaries were published by Canada Stockwatch,
>>and are copyrighted by Canjex Publishing. I have copied and pasted
>>the sections relating to Chopp Computer, now known as ANTS.
>>
>>Friday Apr 26 1985
>>Another technology issue, CHOPP
>>COMPUTER CORP. moved up $.50 to $8.37 on 29,000 shares. Chopp
>>used to be called Baz Resources, and changed its name when a
>>new group became involved in the company in February 1985. At
>>that time the stock was trading at $1.00, up from $.45 where
>>it had been since listed (as little more than a shell
>>company) in November 1984. The first member of the new group,
>>Ms. Josephine Hutton was appointed to the board in February
>>1985. The news release at that time mentions that Ms. Hutton
>>has been involved in many public companies - and indeed she
>>has. According to our private research facilities she was
>>once a director of three of Ms. Ann Mark's companies: Mark V,
>>Thor and Mundee. From there she moved on to become involved
>>with another group whose key member was a colourful and witty
>>Vancouver stock promoter, Mr. Harold Charles Moll. The
>>corporate activities - some would say antics - of Mr. Moll
>>make a marvellous tale that we will save for another day; but
>>those companies that Ms. Hutton was associated with were
>>Canzona, Cherokee, Cornwall and Heartland. According to our
>>records, she was also involved with Boville Resources, but
>>that company was unrelated to the first four. Whether or not
>>any of Ms. Hutton's former corporate associates will be with
>>her in Chopp Computer Corp. isn't clear. Chopp has agreed to
>>acquire development, manufacturing and marketing rights from
>>Sullivan Computer Corp. of New York for their "super
>>computer". Sullivan's development centres around the concept
>>of parallel processing, one of the most sophisticated areas
>>of research aimed at making computers smarter. So far, it
>>would appear that some of the people involved in the Sullivan
>>research and development will be joining Chopp and Ms.
>>Hutton.
>>
>>Market Summary
>>Monday Jul 1 1985
>>CHOPP COMPUTER CORP. was back trading after
>>its halt. The company is in the process of distributing
>>250,000 shares at a minimum price of $7.00 via a statement of
>>material facts. The closing trade was $10.38 on volume of
>>166,000 shares, so presumably the offering is well underway.
>>The proceeds will be used to finance part of a research
>>agreement between Chopp (the licensee) and Sullivan Computer
>>Corp. of New York (the licensor). In order to complete its
>>end of the deal, Chopp is committed to spend $7 million on
>>the research program and commence marketing a working
>>parallel processor by July 1, 1988. For its efforts Chopp
>>will receive the exclusive rights to Canada, Great Britain
>>and Northern Ireland and the non-exclusive rights to the rest
>>of the world, with the exception of the United States (which
>>appears to remain with Sullivan). There is competition in
>>this field - trying to make faster, smarter computers (the
>>so-called next generation) - one leader of which is
>>reportedly the aptly named Thinking Machines Inc.
>>
>>Market Summary
>>Tuesday Dec 3 1985
>>CHOPP COMPUTER was among the most active issues and it moved
>>up $1.25 to $15.38 as 1.3 million shares changed hands. The
>>company has announced its plans to merge with Sullivan
>>Computer Corporation, a Delaware company that is working on
>>developing smarter, faster computers.
>>
>>Market Summary
>>Friday Dec 6 1985
>>The top trader in terms of value ($3.5 million) was CHOPP
>>COMPUTER: on volume of 183,000 shares it continued its climb
>>with a $3.13 gain to an even twenty-one dollars. Readers will
>>remember that Chopp's shares were split on a three-for-one
>>basis back in August; that means $63 for old Chopp. Until
>>last April, Chopp was known as Baz Resources. Chopp has been
>>among the VSE's most active issues for the past week now, and
>>it has been advancing steadily each day.
>>
>>Market Summary
>>Monday Dec 9 1985
>>Again, CHOPP COMPUTERS was the VSE'S top trader in terms of
>>dollar value; $6.5 million worth of the company's shares
>>changed hands but Chopp took a turn for the worse. As 306,000
>>shares traded it lost $8.00 for a final trade of $13.00. With
>>less than an hour left in the day, trading in the shares of
>>the company was halted pending an announcement. The company
>>disseminated a news release which stated quite simply that
>>there were no material changes in the company - good or bad -
>>which haven't been disclosed already.
>>
>>Market Summary
>>Monday Dec 9 1985
>>Again, CHOPP COMPUTERS was the VSE'S top trader in terms of
>>dollar value; $6.5 million worth of the company's shares
>>changed hands but Chopp took a turn for the worse. As 306,000
>>shares traded it lost $8.00 for a final trade of $13.00. With
>>less than an hour left in the day, trading in the shares of
>>the company was halted pending an announcement. The company
>>disseminated a news release which stated quite simply that
>>there were no material changes in the company - good or bad -
>>which haven't been disclosed already.
>>
>>
>>Market Summary
>>Tuesday Feb 11 1986
>>CHOPP COMPUTER took
>>number one spot: 117,000 shares traded and it moved up a
>>dollar to $15.75. Chopp is still in the process of merging
>>with a private California company, Sullivan Computer
>>Corporation.
>>
>>
>>Market Summary -
>>Friday Feb 14 1986
>>You've come a long way Baby. CHOPP COMPUTER CORPORATION was
>>resting today - its shares were halted pending a news release
>>- but on Friday it closed at $19.00. That's a handsome price
>>for any stock, but it is only part of the story: you see,
>>Chopp has split itself six times - which is why there are
>>13.7 million shares issued. To put it another way, on a
>>pre-split basis, Chopp is now trading at $114 per share, and
>>the market values the company at two hundred and sixty
>>million dollars. Not bad for a shell company named Baz
>>Resources that was listed on November 2, 1984 after going
>>public at $.17. (It changed its name in April, 1985). A canny
>>investor who spent $170 for 1000 Baz in 1984 now has 6000
>>Chopp worth $114,000. All the excitement is about Chopp's
>>supercomputer, and all the on again-off again-partially
>>completed financings reflect the company's obligations to
>>finance the supercomputer's development. Chopp's trading
>>pattern has had one or two sudden downward lurches on the way
>>to its recent lofty levels - which help to make the stock and
>>the company all the more controversial. The trading volume
>>has increased sharply in the last few weeks (as has the
>>price), so there is every reason to think that Chopp's
>>trading may become more, rather than less, topical. Therefore
>>we have re-printed our complete data base on the company back
>>to the day it was listed as Baz Resources. First read Baz;
>>then read Chopp.
>>
>>
>>Market Summary -
>>Monday Feb 17 1986
>>CHOPP COMPUTER was back trading again but it was off $2.00 to
>>$17.00. The company announced that a private placement which
>>was to have been for 175,000 units has been reduced to 70,000
>>units (before the latest two for one split) at $11.70 per
>>unit. The stock exchange, however, finds the price
>>unacceptable. Further financing is being arranged.
>>(c) Copyright 1998 Canjex Publishing Ltd.
>>http://www.canada-stockwatch.com
>>
>>
>>Market Summary -
>>Tuesday Feb 25 1986
>>CHOPP COMPUTER advanced $.25 to $17.63; volume was 49,000
>>shares. The company is raising funds to finance the
>>development of its super computer. A private placement of
>>175,000 units (which would have netted Chopp over two million
>>dollars) is not going to proceed as planned. However, Chopp
>>recently disclosed that it had arranged another private
>>placement, this time for 70,000 units, which would bring
>>$819,000 into the company.
>>
>>Market Summary
>>Tuesday March 18 1986
>>CHOPP COMPUTER has also arranged a private placement;
>>$480,000 will be raised from a Kentucky investor; the money
>>will be spent on the ongoing development of the company's
>>super computer. In terms of dollar value, Chopp was the third
>>busiest issue today: 47,000 shares changed hands and it moved
>>up $.38 to $20.50.
>>
>>Market Summary
>>Friday April 4 1986
>>Today, Chopp had
>>one of its horrid corrections: it collapsed $5.88 to $13.13
>>and was halted at the company's request after trading 90,000
>>shares. Is Chopp finished? This stock has had sell-offs in
>>the past, and then it has not only come back to fight another
>>day - it has gone on to new highs; rashly predicting its
>>demise is living too dangerously for our liking. To date, the
>>Chopp knockers have been wrong for a price run that has taken
>>the stock (on an unsplit basis) from $.17 to $120.00. That is
>>some wrong. Unless today's correction has broken the back of
>>the stock - and at this very moment all that is left is for
>>it to start trading again and continue its downward plummet -
>>Choppers should stop trying to guess where it might end and
>>start thinking about how it might end. (Sooner or later all
>>stock promotions come to an end; even Dome Petroleum
>>confirmed that).
>>Let's go back in time to 1980 and (until Chopp) one of the
>>biggest promotions the VSE has ever seen - March Resources.
>>March, if you weren't around then, ran - on an unsplit basis
>>- to $60.00 a share. Although March was in the oil business -
>>it ran on a dry hole called the North Lost Soldier well - and
>>Chopp is in the computer business, there are enough
>>similarities to make a comparison worth while. Like March
>>then (oil), Chopp now (computers) is in a business that is
>>especially popular with investors; both stocks have been
>>exceptionally liquid traders; both ran to extraordinary
>>prices; both have some people in common. The clearest sign
>>that the March promotion was getting long in the tooth lay in
>>the company news releases, and there was a blizzard of them.
>>There had to be: the company was drilling a well and the
>>stock was flying all over the place. Everytime it made a big
>>move up or down the stock exchange demanded a news release.
>>The higher it got, the more volatile it got, and the more
>>frequently the exchange said news release please. Now, if you
>>have to keep issuing a news release every third day about the
>>same project, eventually there won't be much new news. And no
>>matter how artfully the writer puts it, after several of them
>>they read like no new news. Few things will chip away at the
>>edges of a highly promoted stock more surely than a series of
>>news releases giving the impression that there is nothing
>>new. Sooner or later, this promoter's predicament becomes
>>impossible to avoid on stocks like March and Chopp because
>>the easy solution - control the stock so that it has no major
>>price gyrations - is impossible. With 13 million shares
>>issued and a big speculative premium attached to the price,
>>volatility is inevitable; not even Chopp's expert market
>>makers can avoid it. So it will be "news release please". The
>>only other solution is to have a never ending stream of new
>>news to meet each request with - and that requires a never
>>ending stream of new money. Whether it's drilling for oil or
>>designing new computers, it costs a fortune to get those
>>newsy results. The only way to avoid the volatility problem,
>>and therefore the news release dilemma, is to keep the price
>>of the stock down through stock splits - Chopp has now split
>>itself in six - but even that causes trouble because
>>eventually there will be so many shares issued that the stock
>>won't be able to get out of its own way. Also there is the
>>added problem of the shareholder who bought 1000 shares
>>because he wants 1000 shares - not 6000. That man will be a
>>seller. Ah, it's a tough life, being the promoter of a $.17
>>stock that (until today) was effectively trading at $120.00.
>>Whatever will the Choppers do? Probably they'll issue a news
>>release. |
